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Prosecutor in Molly Conley trial: Disappointed in manslaughter verdict, but goals accomplished
Mar 31, 2015, 3:26 PM | Updated: 4:17 pm
"This isn't the label that we were aiming for - manslaughter is not the same label as murder," Snohomish County Prosecutor Mark Roe told KIRO Radio's Dori Monson. (Photo: Conley family)
(Photo: Conley family)
Monday’s manslaughter conviction of Erick Walker in the 2013 death of 15-year-old Molly Conley was a lesser verdict than Snohomish County Prosecutor Mark Roe was looking for, but he told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson that he and his team accomplished what they set out to do.
Related: Mother of slain girl: ‘I don’t get Molly back’
“Labels are important and there was at least some disappointment that he wasn’t convicted of murder,” Roe said. “Our main goals when we set out here were to prove that Erick Walker shot and killed Molly Conley and to send him to prison for the rest of his life so he couldn’t hurt anybody else.
“This isn’t the label that we were aiming for – manslaughter is not the same label as murder – but the jury did conclude beyond reasonable doubt, 12-nothing, that he’s the one who killed Molly Conley.”
Just one juror stood between the prosecutors and a first-degree murder conviction, but even with the lesser conviction, 28-year-old Walker is expected to be handed a sentence that will keep him in prison for the rest of his life.
“He’s going to be looking at somewhere around 70, 80 years, so he’s not going to be out to hurt anybody else,” Roe said.
